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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25663744">Mourning Acceptance</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paradise_of_Mary_Jane/pseuds/Mayarene%20Rose'>Mayarene Rose (Paradise_of_Mary_Jane)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Major Season 2 Spoilers, Mourning</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:14:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,861</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25663744</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paradise_of_Mary_Jane/pseuds/Mayarene%20Rose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There is every possibility that Klaus is making the mirrorverse version of Ben uncomfortable by charging straight towards him and unceremoniously enveloping him in a tight embrace.</p><p>But well. Fuck that. Klaus’ entire brand hinges on being weird and chaotic enough that no one ever questions him. This is pretty normal for him, all things considered.</p><p>Besides, he’s in <em>mourning. </em>He decides he’s entitled to having a good and proper emotional breakdown.</p><p>“You asshole,” he hisses, even though part of him knows full-well that this isn’t his Ben and this isn’t the guy who just left him to save the world and their sister without even bothering to say goodbye. “You <em>fucking asshole.</em>”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ben Hargreeves &amp; Klaus Hargreeves</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>313</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Mourning Acceptance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This fic is a hot mess, I still have like five WIPs I should be working on, and yet Season 2 came and took my soul</p><p>Please enjoy</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There is every possibility that Klaus is making the mirrorverse version of Ben uncomfortable by charging straight towards him and unceremoniously enveloping him in a tight embrace.</p><p>But well. Fuck that. Klaus’ entire brand hinges on being weird and chaotic enough that no one ever questions him. This is pretty normal for him, all things considered.</p><p>Besides, he’s in <em>mourning. </em>He decides he’s entitled to having a good and proper emotional breakdown.</p><p>“You asshole,” he hisses, even though part of him knows full-well that this isn’t his Ben and this isn’t the guy who just left him to save the world and their sister without even bothering to say goodbye. “You <em>fucking asshole.</em>”</p><p>In all fairness, Klaus probably should have expected this not-Ben lifting up his shirt and unleashing a tentacle to push him halfway across the room.</p><p>Everything sort of goes downhill from there.</p><p>--</p><p>(Klaus knew Ben was gone the moment it happened.</p><p>He always knew. The ghosts were always there, after all, and they all latched onto Klaus like particularly irritating leeches. He could always feel them on his skin, strange tethers tying them together and around Klaus’ entire being.</p><p>Getting drunk meant the tethers snapped, for just a moment, and Klaus was free, and well… He was pretty drunk when it happened.</p><p>Ben’s tether was the only one that never disappeared, no matter what Klaus did.</p><p>So Klaus didn’t even think anything of it when Ben slowly walked towards Vanya, just fed him the energy and power he needed to be corporeal and do what he needed to do.</p><p>He felt the tether fray when Ben possessed Vanya. Fray, moment by moment, thread by thread, slowly but steadily.</p><p>And then it snapped. And then it disappeared.</p><p>And just like that, Ben was gone and Klaus…</p><p>Klaus felt empty.)</p><p>--</p><p>The thing with picking a fight with the six of them is that they’re tired, they just spent a week high-strung and getting chased down by killers, and the world nearly ended again on their watch, which is just a very long-winded way of saying that none of them, Klaus included, have any patience for this kind of shit.</p><p>Honestly, Five handles most of it, and whoever manages to avoid his rage meets Luther’s fist or Diego’s knife or Allison’s knee in very sensitive places.</p><p>Klaus landed near the liquor cabinet, and what the hell, he’s had a Day, lost his ghost-brother only to come face-to-face with his doppelganger two days later. He can get back on the wagon when his life stops being so goddamn weird again.</p><p>He pours himself a drink and calls out, “Don’t hurt the dead brother guys!” he says.</p><p>“He’s not our brother!” Five snaps, currently in the process of strangling the guy who’s definitely not Ben. The tentacles are gone and now the two of them are just grappling on the floor.</p><p>“Not in the mood to lose him a third time!” Klaus snaps, despite himself. He takes a drink and savors the burn of whiskey against his throat. </p><p>Dad always did have the best liquor.</p><p>Klaus is probably going to need a goddamn barrel to deal with everything happening right now. Ben would be so, so disappointed, he thinks idly.</p><p>In the end, it’s Vanya who ends the fight with a loud boom that shatters every glass in the room in a single second.</p><p>And before Klaus could get properly drunk, too.</p><p>Fucking typical.</p><p>--</p><p>(Klaus was never very good at the mourning thing. He can summon ghosts; it’s not like he was ever going to have a normal relationship with death.</p><p>He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to mourn Ben.</p><p>Because here’s the thing, Ben didn’t really get Klaus’ powers. He didn’t want to leave, sure, but that was besides the point. He didn’t really have a choice in the matter.</p><p>The tether snapped, but Klaus could always make another, tie it around Ben’s wrist and pull him back to the land of the living and back to Klaus’ side. If Klaus called, the dead came. If Klaus went looking, he could find Ben.</p><p>But that wasn’t fair to Ben. And Klaus had always known, deep down, that he was keeping Ben there, but if Ben wanted to leave, <em>really </em>wanted to leave, then Klaus would let him.</p><p>And then Ben left.</p><p>And Klaus had no fucking idea how he was supposed to deal with that.)</p><p>--</p><p>In the end, their dad eventually saw it was a losing battle, gave up, and (very begrudgingly) gave them rooms to sleep in, with the silent promise that he’s going to tear into them the next day and the implicit warning not to do anything they’re not supposed to.</p><p>Which fuck that and fuck him.</p><p>Klaus steals a pack of cigarettes and sneaks back to the living room to be all sad and mopey. He burns through the cigarettes quickly, but he hasn’t graduated to drinking yet so that’s nice.</p><p>“You’re not supposed to smoke in here.”</p><p>Klaus doesn’t jump at the sound of Ben’s voice. He’s used to hearing Ben’s voice suddenly in silent rooms. It does make his chest ache, though, and he’s just. Not dealing with that right now.</p><p>“I stole these from your brother so you probably want to tell <em>him </em>that,” Klaus says. “As for me, I’ve been a lost cause since I was thirteen, so you don’t have to worry about it.”</p><p>From the silence, it sounds like the other Ben’s trying and failing to come up with something to say to that, which is a familiar silence. If Klaus keeps his eyes closed, he can almost believe things are back to normal.</p><p>“I’m not your dead brother,” the other Ben says. “I feel like I should make that clear. I don’t know you assholes, so I’d appreciate it if you all stopped looking at me like you’re seeing a ghost.”</p><p>“Five filled you in then?” Klaus asks, snorting. Not looking at Ben like he was a ghost. Now wasn’t that a funny thought?</p><p>“Yeah,” the other Ben says. “I don’t know why dad agreed to work with you, but if we’re going to do this, you guys have to know I’m not your brother.”</p><p>“Wow, you’re really better at this number one thing than Luther. That almost sounded nice. Good on you, Ben-O.”</p><p>“Do we have an understanding?” the other Ben insists.</p><p>Klaus takes another drag from his cigarette and resists the urge to grimace. He found them hidden in his old room, and whoever owns them definitely needs a few lessons on buying non-shitty cigarettes.</p><p>“Well, <em>obviously,</em>” he says. “My Ben is a dork who never would have grown his hair and moustache out like that. You look like a one-episode anime villain. No offense,” he remembers to add after a beat, because things like that didn’t even scratch the surface of the insults he and Ben have thrown each other, but well. Like the other guy said, they were different people.</p><p>It’s hard to remember sometimes, though, especially when he hears Ben snort like that. It’s like a worse version of meeting Dave in 1963. They look like the same person, same eyes and face and voice, but a little bit wrong. A little to the left. Something just not quite right.</p><p>This time, it’s the mannerisms. This Ben is loud, confident, almost abrasive. When he was alive (hell sometimes even when he was dead), their Ben always sat a bit hunched in on himself, arms wrapped around his stomach like he was doing his best to keep the tentacles inside him and not destroying everything in sight.</p><p>This Ben sits straight, his shoulders back, no hint of hesitation, no hint of fear. Definitely perfect number one material. Though it’s hard to imagine Ben ever liking fighting enough to be a good leader.</p><p>Just one of those differences, Klaus supposes.</p><p>“And well, there’s also the obvious bit,” Klaus continues. “You’re not dead. My brother’s been dead since we were teenagers.”</p><p>“Seems like a pretty long time to mourn him,” the other Ben says. It was kind of a mean thing to say, but it’s not like Klaus has any room to criticize on that front.</p><p>“I see dead people,” Klaus says. “Mourning dead brothers doesn’t really work the same way for me. The guy just decided to move on like, two days ago.” Klaus frowns. “From my timeline, I mean. He moved on back in ‘63, but it was also two days ago? Sweet Jesus, time travel is confusing.”</p><p>An awkward silence falls between them. That actually makes Klaus look up from the couch and peer up at the other Ben. He has his arms crossed over his chest and there’s a little furrow in his brow as he scowls down at Klaus. </p><p>Now, Klaus likes to think he can read Ben pretty well. You just can’t spend every waking moment with someone for seventeen years without learning all their expressions. This one’s a pretty familiar one: worried and scared and trying to cover it up with bitchiness.</p><p>Apparently this Ben isn’t enough of an asshole to dismiss something like that.</p><p>This Ben may not be so different from his Ben after all. Isn’t that a weird thought that Klaus is very much not willing to confront right now. </p><p>He takes another drag from his cigarette.</p><p>“Ben,” Klaus says. “Are you happy here?”</p><p>“That’s none of your business,” the other Ben says. “Haven’t we just established that I’m not your brother.”</p><p>“Well, obviously I know that since I’m asking <em>you</em>,” Klaus says. “Our Ben hated it here. We all did. Wanted to get out as soon as we could, but was too scared to do it. Dad’s kind of an abusive prick, if you haven’t noticed already. And eventually, it was too late for him to get out.”</p><p>“I still don’t see what this has to do with me,” the other Ben says. “Since, again, I’m not your brother. He’s not here right now.”</p><p>“That’s mostly because my brother’s dead.” The cigarette’s mostly just a stub at this point. Klaus sighs and lights another. “The way I see it, it’s in your best interest to not follow in his footsteps. If you don’t want to be here, then you should leave.”</p><p>Though, this Ben really is very different from Klaus’ brother. Maybe he is happy here. Maybe Reginald Hargreeves actually got his act together and was a good father to the Sparrow Academy. Klaus doubts it, though. He knows better than to have any kind of faith in his father.</p><p>“You don’t know anything about me,” the other Ben snarls, uncharacteristically angry. Or maybe characteristically angry. He’s right. Klaus doesn’t really know anything about him.</p><p>He hears him leave, steps heavier, not even trying to be quiet. Klaus hasn’t heard Ben’s footsteps in seventeen years. He thinks that maybe there’s some kind of irony in that, if he lets himself think about it for long enough.</p><p>But he’s not. He’s just not.</p><p>He takes a long drag from his cigarette, closes his eyes, and tries to fall asleep despite the unfamiliar thrum of loneliness in his chest.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm acediscowlng on tumblr if y'all want to chat</p></blockquote></div></div>
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